Photo courtesy of Mason Westerkamp
Kicking off the final week of the regular season Tuesday, the Pella Christian basketball teams were swept by Dallas Center-Grimes in a Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader heard live on the KRLS2 stream. The Eagle girls fell to the Class 4A #6 Mustangs 56-43, while the boys squad was defeated 73-52.
The Pella Christian girls hung tough with the ranked DCG squad, forcing a 7-7 tie at the 2:45 mark of the first quarter, before the Mustangs pulled ahead 14-9 at the end of the period. The Eagles cut the lead down to 14-12 two minutes into the second quarter, but DCG responded with a 13-7 run over the final six minutes to take a 27-19 lead into the locker rooms. Out of halftime, Pella Christian cut the deficit to as little as five points and outscored the Mustangs 12-11 in the third quarter, to go into the final eight minutes of play down just 38-31. Despite pulling within four early in the fourth quarter, the Eagles upset bid fell short as DCG won the period 18-12 to secure the 13-point win. Faith Kacmarynski led the way for the PC girls in the loss with 13 points, while Rachel Kacmarynski added 10 and Chloe Snyder scored nine as the team fell to 7-13 overall and 1-10 in conference play. Pella Christian head coach Brendan Foughty said that in spite of the loss, he was thrilled with how his squad played against a talented Mustangs team.
“In terms of a full four quarter game, that’s probably the best four quarters of basketball we’ve played in the last two years since I’ve been coaching this program. I thought our girls did an excellent job on the defensive side of the ball. The last thing we said coming out of the locker room is that it starts with defense, and we’ve been getting better defensively throughout the last couple weeks and it’s shown. Obviously, the offense has been a struggle in the last few games but I felt like against a really good DCG team tonight we played a lot better offensively as well, so that was good to see.”
The offenses were on display early in the nightcap of the doubleheader, as DCG took a 23-15 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 45-33 advantage into halftime. The Mustangs controlled the third quarter by outscoring the Eagles 17-6 to extend their edge to 62-39, and despite the Eagles winning the fourth quarter 13-11, it wasn’t enough to avoid the 21-point loss. Gilbert Flagel led the scoring effort for the PC boys with 15 points, while Deacon Branderhorst knocked down four threes to add 12 points. With the loss, the Eagles fell to 8-12 overall and 2-9 in LHC play.
The Eagles will wrap up regular season and conference play tomorrow night at home against Indianola.